Morrow Project
The Morrow Project is a science fiction role-playing game created by Kevin Dockery, Robert Sadler and Richard Tucholka and published by TimeLine Limited. It is set after a devastating nuclear war. It was first released in the 1980s, and it still has a loyal following. Recently the game's website has indicated that the Project's motto is Ordinary People, Extraordinary Mission. Setting The game is based around the idea that a group of American industrialists predicted the coming of an apocalyptic nuclear war, and began to create a plan for an emergency operations and reconstruction infrastructure that would survive that war. This plan is the eponymous "Morrow Project". A number of volunteers were cryogenically frozen in hidden bunkers called boltholes. They were provided with caches of supplies and equipment, intended to help the teams rebuild civilization -- once the war had ended and the resulting nuclear fallout had diminished enough. The plan was for the Morrow Project to be coordinated by a central command post and record-keeping facility called "Prime Base." This is an immense self-contained bunker with various annexes, hidden underground in Nevada, in the canyons near Soldier Meadow. Its details are explained in the game book entitled "Prime Base." The facility's advanced life support systems and huge variety of other equipment were intended to allow the Project's leaders not to sleep through the war, so as to chronicle it and be in the best position to figure out what should be done next. The Project's "Phoenix Team," a highly secret tier-I special operations unit of approximately platoon strength, was also here, but kept frozen to be used only on the highest authority if there was no alternative. Prime Base was built in isolation according to schedule, but just before it could assume its role it was sabotaged and bombed by a shadowy madman called Krell, sustaining serious damage. The sudden attack wiped out the Morrow Project leaders, but 150 years after the war, the damaged central computer at Prime Base finally began to issue one or more wakeup signals. This revived at least one of the Morrow Project assets -- the team that the player characters are on. The status of other Teams is purposefully kept unclear, so that details can be worked out by the person coordinating the game, who is called the Project Director. Is the Project hopelessly compromised, or can the scattered outposts reconnect and replace the missing headquarters? Must they try to confront huge reconstruction tasks alone, when it was expected that thousands of Project members would help them? Do they have the courage to try? Initial Scenario The initial scenario may be played with nothing other than the game book, dice, paper and pencil. Expansion sets are available introducing further scenarios, weapons and equipment. One hundred and fifty years after the Third World War, the members of the Morrow Project wake to a strange world. Instead of being part of an organized plan to rebuild their civilization, they find themselves isolated in a world where the War is only a distant legend, the people are ignorant of anything but the struggle to survive and strange mutated animals haunt their footsteps. Players of the Morrow Project must not only survive, but must carry out their original mission: to rebuild the world. To do this they have their equipment and training, their team and their own guts and imagination. Together with their teammates they must try to do alone a job that thousands were trained to do. Included in the game book is targeting information for the missiles that fell, full details on Morrow Project teams, vehicles and equipment, weapons, complete medical details, and information about the people and creatures who live in the post-holocaust world. MARS, Recon, Science and Specialty While each team is equipped to survive on its own, it proved impossible to equip all the teams for every postwar contingency. For example, some Recon Teams are almost as heavily armed as MARS Teams, while others are not. With teams having been put to sleep over a course of several years from the 1960s onwards, there will also be variations in the equipment they have. In some cases, teams may wake to find new equipment they are not yet trained on, and will have to teach themselves from instructional materials. Below is a general summary of the Project groups: Recon: The general purpose teams of the Project and the most numerous, Recon teams are equipped with varying types of weapons and equipment ranging from V-150 armored cars to SK-5 hovercraft. Their orders are to reconnoiter the countryside, report on local conditions, and provide advice to Prime Base concerning which teams should be awakened next. MARS: These teams make up the military arm of the Project—they are extremely formidable and heavily armed. In addition to conventional weapons, some of these teams have man-portable laser rifles, and some have an early generation of no-nonsense, minimalist powered armor. The purpose of the MARS teams is to support and defend civilians and other teams. A large portion of MARS team members are ex-military personnel with combat experience. MARS stands for Mobile Assault, Rescue and Strike. Some MARS teams have heavy vehicles such as the Mars One. The Mars One is a large custom-built articulated vehicle with very heavy armor and powerful weapons. It is able to carry troops, employ onboard sensors, provide early warning, and serve as a command post. Science: The Science teams are broadly cross-trained scientific and technical units that can cope with a wide range of situations—from complex medical care and epidemiology to understanding unusual hazards and dangerous creatures. Their areas of knowledge range from biology to nuclear physics. They are equipped with a second type of versatile custom-built articulated vehicle, called the Science One, and have armament second only to that of the MARS teams. Specialty: This is a broad term applied to Project groups that have a non-standard function in regard to their equipment and personnel. Specialty groups generally consist of assets frozen with orders to meet at a predesignated point. Most Specialty teams are not as heavily armed as Recon or MARS teams, because the Project's planners felt that those teams could not operate to their full extent if survivors felt threatened by them. Specialty groups assigned to the Project include: Engineering: Building, construction, repair and maintenance of Project and civilian equipment. Agricultural: Farming and livestock preserved by using frozen embryos. Equipped to build and assist farming communities. Psychological: Formed to handle extremist groups, riots, negotiation challenges, and other serious problems caused by stress. Aviation: Air survey reconnaissance, fire support, and air mobility support for other teams. These missions are done with fixed-wing aircraft including cargo planes, as well as light helicopters, early types of unmanned aerial vehicles, and custom-built autogyros that are modular and man-portable. Command: Oversight of Combined Group assets, both mobile field teams and fixed installations, generally for a city or limited geographical area such as. Combined Group Seattle. Frozen Watch: Casualty replacement personnel for the field teams, as well as Morrow Project field police, internal security, and counterintelligence functions. Power Reception: Reception of electrical power which is scheduled to be transmitted via microwaves, once Morrow Project power satellites have been lofted. Support: Logistical support such as supply, repair, and replacement operations. Communications: Restore radio frequency, laser microwave, and eventually even satellite communications. They also maintain the project's clandestine extremely low fequency systems that very slowly accumulate Prime Base's messages, such as briefings, for teams to read when they awaken—thus counterbalancing the minuscule data rate. For security reasons, ELF systems were not for use until after the war. Medical: Health care for the general population and for project assets. Generally equipped with a fixed installation. Decontamination: Render safe personnel, vehicles and structures contaminated by radiological, biological, or chemical hazards. Also assist in the salvage of equipment and materials recovered from unsafe areas. System WIP External Links WIP Category:Settings Category:Game System Category:RPG Setting